The Final Variable
by youreaglader-harry
Summary: Meet the girl that held the key to the Flare. Discover the soul that made the sacrifice. Follow the teenager who saved the world. Go on, take your time; the Final Variable will be waiting for you. OC/?
1. Prologue

"My child!" screamed my mother. " I won't let them hurt you! Just do what they tell you and you will be fine!"

I was taken from my house, my hardly sane mother, and my life by an iron grip of an unknown man. He pulled me along as I willingly trudged beside him. I knew that my mother was lying. She was too far past insane to start caring for me and telling me the truth now.

But there was still a itch in my brain, in the far right corner, telling my legs to run, my voice to shriek, my mouth to bite my captor.

That was the last thing my father ever told me before he was taken away when I was only two. "Run." He said to me. His crazy brown eyes were drenched in fear. He tried to grasp me with his hands. He had always had big hands; like bear paws. He whispered something intp my ear before he and I were pulled apart by my mother and a man in a green suit. "If they try to take you, run far away. And don't stop until you reach the queen city."

Of course, I didn't know what that meant then. I was only a child. I also didn't know what 'they' meant either.

"W.C.K.D," my mother would tell me. I would huddle in her lap as we sat in the big, leather chair. My father's chair. "It's pronounced 'wicked', like the play."

When I asked why father was taken away, she would grimace and squint her eyes. It was clear that she was hiding the tears that begged to roll down her face. She would put me back on the coffee stained carpet, walk away and lock herself into the room that the happy couple once shared. I would pretend to play with the holoscreen even though there no one to see me fake it. I would hear her screams from up above.

I knew she was going crazy. I knew the symptoms. There were signs, posters, warnings everywhere, telling me what to watch for in the people that I grew close to. The animals were eating at her brain like the starving on Thanksgiving. I would lock myself downstairs when she would go on one of her all-night rages, throwing the table and biting herself. She would shatter the glasses and burn all her clothes, singing a song about crying fire.

No one was there to save me.

Until W.C.K.D came to the rescue.

When I was little, I yearned for my questions to be answered. But now that I know the answers, I wish I had never asked the questions.

But soon, all my problems will go away. All my knowledge about the truth and even the lies will disappear. W.C.K.D will see to that. We're going to discuss the procedure within the hour. They will send me to a place that would, and I quote 'have quite an array of distractions for me to deal with', though they never told me what those distractions were. They said I could help many people if I go, so that is what I will do. I could even help _him_.

* * *

I don't want to go. I don't want to help W.C.K.D . The lies that I want to run away from are what they are giving me if I go.

I don't want to torture them. They don't deserve it. Those people in there are good and are going to suffer if I go. But if I don't go, even more will die.

I didn't know what they were really doing. They told me they were doctors, and I couldn't really see what they were doing to have a real opinion myself. I secluded in the 'guest' quarters with the others. When they started to disappear, they told us they had it. I believed it, of course. But when, they took _him_ away, that's when I lost it. I locked myself in my bedroom; they had to force me to come out to eat food. Soon enough, though, they couldn't even get me to come out. They had to give me food through the window in the door. I haven't been outside that door in two years.

They lied to me about _him._ They said _he_ was past the gone. They said _he_ had it. They said I could help _him_ if I go, that _he_ would be the first to get the cure. But _he_ wasn't sick at all. _He_ was in there the whole time. I will see _him_ again, they said. They said I could make _him_ remember me; make _him_ love me again.

They said it was possible, not certain. I know that they told another lie.

I don't want to go, yet I let them stick the mask on my face, the metal tools in my brain.

I want to thrash, I want to fight, I want to run away, like my father told me to, years and years before. I want to struggle like I did earlier, before they put me into the cage with the chains around my wrists, nailed into the floor.

They slam the door and lock it. I growl and hiss, like a show animal. Then, they throw in a body. Lifeless, but not dead. The last thing I remember thinking before the lights went out and my brain stopped was this:

" _Find him. Tell him everything. Help them escape. W.C.K.D is EVIL."_


	2. Chapter 1

I willed my eyes open.

They didn't.

I told my brain to break the seal of sleep.

It obeyed.

"Thomas!"

My eyes shot open, and I glanced around. The shout filled every cell of me with fear and caution. When I could control my actions once more, I snuck a look in the direction the shriek came from.

It was a girl. Her face was pale, almost white, and her hair was long with a deep, mud-like color. She pretty enough, but was twitching with jerky movements, as if she were a robot with a glitch. The only sign that she wasn't a ghost was the gash on her right arm that was bleeding and oozing out a mix of red and some yellow tinged liquid. It must have been infected.

The girl kept screaming for 'Thomas' for the rest of the time we were in there- wherever that was. I had the motivation to find that out.

It was very dimly lit in the space we were trapped in. It looked like some sort of cage or box, judging from the walls. There were barrels and sacks stacked and tossed all around me. There seemed to be a word on them. I squinted, and made out the letters W, C, K, and D. Reading that made me outraged. I'm not sure why. I don't remember ever seeing that word before. In fact, I don't remember _anything_.

I don't even remember my own name.

Suddenly, the cage stopped. At the time, I wasn't sure what happened. I wasn't even aware that the cage was moving.

I tried to stand up, but couldn't. Something on my wrists were holding me back. I looked down to see that my arms were chained to the floor of the cage.

Something that sounded like rusted doors opening rang through my eardrums. I shut my eyes as hard as I could.

I started to hear shouting and whispers. Questions and untruthful answers that were thrown into the air.

I squinted so I could try to see who it was. All I saw was a figure jump into the cage and walk around. It seemed to be inspecting the cage. It stopped at the ghost-girl.

I knew it would come over to me next, so I shut my eyes once again. I heard footsteps come towards me, then stop right beside my head.

A few moments of silence passed by.

"Girls!" The figure- a boy, for sure- shouted. "Two of them. I think they're dead."

The shouts hushed as the word 'girl' found its way into into their brains. The silence made it seem like the word was foreign to them: Girl.

I heard the boy walk away, so I opened my eyes. I then saw the boy crouch down and take something out of ghost-girl's hand. It looked like a piece of paper. He opened up the crumpled ball.

 _"They're the last ones. Ever."_


	3. Chapter 2

Panic immediately erupted. screams echoed in the small space I was trapped in, and the boy tried to silence the crowd that was supposedly above us. The shouts quieted almost at once.

"Thomas!"

All eyes were now pinned on ghost-girl. I knew that it was freaky to hear her cry out like that, but the silence stood in the air much longer than necessary.

"Hey! Get Minho, Thomas, and Gally down here now. And you two," I imagined the boy pointing to the unsuspecting people, "help me with this one." He nodded at ghost-girl. "We need to get her to the med-jacks."

At first I couldn't see anyone carrying the other girl, but then they came into view.

Boys. Two teenage boys. They picked her up by the arms and the legs, then carried her out of the cage and out of my vision.

To my surprise, I heard someone leap into the cage. It startled me so much that I almost yelped.

Almost.

Then, I heard footsteps coming towards me.

My mind went on autopilot, and I shut my eyes. I was hoping they would think that I was dead, or asleep, or in a coma.

"Okay, shank." It was the voice of the boy. "I saw you watchin' us when we took care of that other girl. Open up. I know you're awake."

I was disappointed and relieved at the same time. But, nonetheless, I opened up to see the figure. The boy I saw above me looked about 16. He had short, messy, dirty blond hair. And his eyes…

His eyes were the first thing I saw when I opened mine. Those deep, brown eyes that looked as if they were the color of dark chocolate.

I felt like I had seen them before, but the memory was gone like it was never even there.

I stared into them for a very long time, far longer than what I thought was appropriate. But he kept staring back into mine, so I kept the gaze. He looked like he was hypnotized by my... eyes.

Hell. I didn't even know what color my eyes were!

Our trance was broken by a forced, intentional cough.

Brown-eyes whipped his head around. I heard a jumble of mumbled words that I couldn't understand. Then, the part of Brown Eyes face that I could see turned a deep, pinkish color. He was obviously blushing.

He turned back to me, then knelt next to my knees. Another boy- Asian, 16, with great hair- knelt down on the other side of me.

"Can you get up?" Brown-eyes actually sounded concerned for me. I started to shake my head, but was interrupted by the asian.

"Can the shuck girl talk?" He asked impatiently.

I sat up and stared at him, slightly offended. "Of course I can talk, you idiot!" I then turned to the blond. "And no, Brown-eyes. My wrists are chained to the floor. So if you could get me out of them, that would be wonderful, thank you very much."

I turned back to the asian to see his response to my outburst, but was startled to see him grinning.

"Brown Eyes, huh? Look Newt! She's already got a nickname for you! How sweet."

Brown-eyes- or Newt, which was supposedly his name- and I blushed in unison.

"Shut your bloody shuck mouth, Minho," said Newt under his breath.

Just then, two other boys climbed into the cage. But I didn't notice because my mind was elsewhere.

 _A boy lays down his cards in disbelief._

 _"I can't believe you won again!" He says in fake annoyance. He smiles. " You are a_ bloody _brilliant player."_


End file.
